Macrium Reflect and External HDD

Today after making an image of the C Drive to my WD External HDD I noticed that the created image was dumped into the Recycle Bin with the word *FULL*. (I deleted that one) The external HDD showed the Free Space as being the same in GB as the previous image. Thing is that according to calculations the ext. HDD had 347GB free out of the 698 (750) GB so it was NOT FULL.

So I deleted all Macrium Reflect Images in the external HDD except for 1 Microsoft's backup. Size is now shown correct on this drive.

Questions: Do I have to do a disk defrag of the external and/or format prior to making a new fresh image of my internal HDD prior to making the 1st Reflect's image?

I forgot all of the the WAIKx64 that was installed. Is that to make a Recovery Disk of it?

 

No, you can just go ahead. Validate the image if you want to be sure it's good.

Yes, The WAIK is installed so that Macrium can create a Windows based rescue disk.

 

Earthling - Thanks so much! Deleted and reinstalled Macrium Reflect free and made a recovery disk and created an image.

Now if Macrium Reflect update their software would I have to create another Recovery Disk with each update?

 

What I've done with my backup software (Macrium, AOMEI (my favorite) and EaseUS) is burn the Recovery ISO to CDRWs. When they've come out with updates to their programs, there have presumably, been updates for the software ISOs. To keep EVERYTHING up-to-date, I create the new ISOs and burn them to the same CDRWs after erasing them.

 

Thanks mdonah, I will do so with the DVDRW I have.

 

I use both Acronis and Macrium but don't usually update either unless I make some significant change to my computers. Acronis in particular has had problems with new versions so if it works it's best left as is imo. But yes, if you update the installed version then update the CD too.

If you install EasyBCD you can boot directly into bootable ISOs like the Macrium rescue disk, no disk needed at all. I keep ISOs of both Acronis and Macrium, also a disk management program and Puppy Linux on my boot menu and can boot directly into any of them, though it's wise to keep a disk for each too, just in case :eek

 

I have Reflect version 5.3 build 7220 64-bit installed but I'm still using the rescue CD made from version 5.2 build 6515 Win PE 5.0.

I have done restores with it and it works OK.

 

Thanks guys! I see that Earthling is using 2 different image software.

I've got 2 Ext HDD. Perhaps I should use 2 image programs to take advantage of them and not just 1?

@mjnc: Perhaps I would have to read what the update is about and if it says something about recovery disk I should then erase and create a recovery DVDRW again.

 

I see that you have more than 1 backup software. Which AOMEI version do you use since I went to their website and checked out the free ones? It needs to be simple and straight forward.

 

If you are a little paranoid then yes, use two on separate storage devices. If you are just a normal guy or gal then one is fine. The thing about imaging is it can be so time consuming if you keep everything on your system drive so I always move all my personal files to a data partition and back that up separately, and not with an imaging program either. I can then image my system drive in about 15 min.

 

I use AOMEI Backupper freeware version. The interface is the simplest and very straightforward. One of the biggest pluses for me is it's high compression algorithm. I backed up all 3 of my System drives with AOMEI using high compression and smart sector copy and as an example, my Vista drive has 49.49 GB of data on it and the image that was created is only10.8 GB in size. For me, that's important because I've only got limited space I can back up to.

 

Hi OMA.

I'm not recommending that you do not update the recover disk. I'm just saying that I have done it with an earlier version and it works.
I don't have any RW discs, so rather than make a new disk each time, I just tried the previous one.
If I had some RW disks, I would update the rescue stuff with each update.

Regarding AOMEI, I have not tried it because I'm happy with Macrium Reflect, but it does look good and has gotten some very good reviews.

*Aomei Backupper* Free Imaging – Test & Review

AOMEI Backupper Help

I just completed a typical System partition image backup with Macrium Reflect, of 20.9 GB Data Size, which took 2:35 minutes with these settings:

• Medium (recommended) Compression level
• Intelligent sector copy ON - does not copy the pagefile or hibernation file, if it exists
• Priority - High

The image Size is 11.1 GB, which is about half the size of the partition data.
The transfer rate was greater than 155MB per second with a Solid State Drive system source and Hard Drive (WD caviar black) target.

==

 

Yeah, that's fine, but on an older machine and using a plug-in drive 30Mbps would be more typical transfer rate - that's about five times longer than your time. Add in 150GB of videos, music and so on and now we're talking about nearly 40 times longer than yours, i.e. about 100 minutes or so. At that point it becomes a deterrent to imaging at all, and my point was that by excluding the 150GB or whatever by moving it to another partition, backup times can be dramatically reduced. Your data is also safer on a separate partition.

 

The above-mentioned External HD could be defect as I dropped it on the hardwood floor a long time ago. I had completely forgotten about that since it seems that I still could and still can make images with Reflect. So I don't trust that ext Western Digital My Passport HDD anymore and just will use the other old Seagate external HD.

Thanks to you all who contributed to this thread.

PS: I also do regular backups of my files with USB Flash Drives. So in the end I should be okay I think.

 

I wasn't arguing with you, Earthling.
I agree completely with all of that.
One of the reasons that I chose to use an internal drive instead of an external is because of the higher transfer rate and possibly greater reliability.
You are absolutely right about separating large chunks of data from the operating system and program files.
I agree wholeheartedly.